Xbox Music

The soon to be re-branded Xbox Music apps for iOS and Android have received a big update from Microsoft this week. The main new feature allows users to stream songs they've stored on OneDrive, Microsoft's cloud storage service. This has already been available to those who use Xbox Music on Windows since earlier this year, but now it's available to mobile users for the first time.

Microsoft wants you to "liberate your music," and to help you do that is a new feature that has arrived for Xbox Music: OneDrive integration. It's a relatively simple update, at least as far as the user-end of things go, bringing a "Music" folder to OneDrive in which audiophiles can plop their library of MP3s. Doing so will make that music available on Xbox Music apps on your Windows system, your mobile, Xbox console, and music.xbox.com -- as well as another perk on top of it all.

One awaited feature for Xbox Music users might already be ready for prime time. Although it was already hinted a few months ago, the convergence of Microsoft's two distinct products, Xbox and OneDrive might seems to be close at hand. Like breadcrumbs, clues are laid out for sleuths to follow, revealing that almost everything is in place for Xbox Music users to upload and keep their tunes on OneDrive's spacious cloud storage. All it might actually need is for Microsoft to give the signal and flip the switch.

The nature of online music streaming services is shifting gradually, not to mention heating up as new contenders enter to compete with long-standing services, and reflecting that change is a new announcement from Microsoft: the free streaming aspect of Xbox Music will be going dark on December 1, leaving only the Xbox Music Pass subscription option. The company has preemptively posted responses to some anticipated questions in the form of FAQ, though it danced around answering the most pertinent inquiry: why?

Xbox music may be getting a locker service specifically designed for music uploads soon. Source code files reveal what looks to be an offsite storage repository for music, allowing you to upload your own tunes and play them on your console. The Xbox music locker system is via OneDrive, naturally.

Back in the before times, back when the channel known as MTV (Music Television) was just born, there was a piece of media called the Music Video. In the many years since the birth of this piece of art, musicians have gone in and out of requirements for working on visual compliments to their audio. Today Microsoft’s Xbox Music team is bringing a big bit back to the living room with Music Videos for Xbox Music.

If you're a fan of music who likes the Xbox Music service, Microsoft has really good news for you today. Microsoft has officially released Xbox Music apps for Android and iOS users. In addition to releasing those new applications, Microsoft is also adding free streaming to its Web player.

Xbox Music has arrived on the web, with Microsoft launching the promised online music player today. Joining the existing Xbox Music apps for Windows Phone, Windows, and Xbox 360, the new web player supports synchronized playlists across each platform, with access for Xbox Music Pass subscribers and, albeit only for a 30 day trial, free listeners.

Microsoft's web-based version of Xbox Music will arrive next week, the company has confirmed, expanding the on-demand Spotify rival beyond its own platforms like Xbox 360, Windows 8, and Windows Phone 8. The next step in the roll-out is indeed the web, Microsoft told Engadget, alongside an update for the Windows 8 app in line with the changeover to Windows 8.1.

Microsoft teased it was adding new functionality to SkyDrive, and it seems web-based music streaming may be the first of those enhancements, if code spotted in the site is anything to go by. References to a music player based in SkyDrive, as well as leaked player controls from an internal testing version, have been spotted by LiveSide, though there's no telling whether it will also be integrated with Xbox Music.